Tuberville wrong about oil reserves

First, the sale of Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) has indeed tempered the demand-driven increase in oil and gasoline prices caused by post-pandemic demand, and the Russian aggression in the Ukraine — this according to a Reuters report.

Second, primary or secondary sales of SPR oil to foreign countries (including China) are legal because of a law passed by a Republican-controlled Congress in 2015 — not a nefarious plot by the Bidens outlined on Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Third, oil prices are controlled by the global market and by refiners’ and distributors’ disinclination to reduce their profit margins just because there is a pandemic or a major war happening.

But clearly Tuberville’s hackles are raised most intensely by the “climate fearmongers ... disconnect from reality.”

Those “fearmongers” include a vast majority of scientists who study the climate and find that changes therein are significant and are already likely causing more severe storms, floods and tornados of great concern to Alabama citizens, as well as droughts in other parts of the USA.

My views on climate change are based on current observations, and not on climate models or predictions of future conditions.

Tuberville’s views on energy independence based on extracting fossil fuels at the maximum rate notwithstanding, the future of energy self-sufficiency lies in solar and other green technologies, supplemented by natural gas and nuclear until they are no longer needed.

Roger L. Tanner

Florence